Activists who speak out against ICE and the deportation machine are targeted by the state, whether inside the detention center or outside. When people detained at NWDC go on hunger strike to demand better conditions inside and an end to deportations, GEO Group retaliates with isolation, threats of force feeding, physical and emotional abuse, and more. When people on the outside demand freedom of movement for all and take actions in line with those demands, the state spies on us, our families, deports us, arrests us, intimidates us. But we are not alone. Inside or out, we will continue to work towards a world with no detention and no deportations. We will continue to work towards a world where freedom of movement is granted for all people.

Join us and pick a day between February 12 and February 18 to strike in solidarity with the activists detained at NWDC.

1 – Email us at resistenciasolidarity (at) gmail.com and tell us what day.
2 – Take a picture of yourself, or your organization, with the signs attached (or make your own) and post them to your social media! Tag us!
3 – Write a message or letter of support to the strikers inside. We will send them the messages and photos.
4 – Download our most recent People’s Tribunal findings and use them as talking points to chat with people around why you’re on hunger strike.

Support Camp Zapata!Farmworkers strike after the death of a fellow worker in Sumas, WA.

August 10th, 2017: Happening now! Camp Zapata – a camp of guest workers via the H2A program & community members – are organizing to demand accountability for their fellow worker’s death, Ernesto Silva Ibarra, as well as to demand pay of their own owed wages and renewals of their expired visas for which the company farm Sarbanand Farms is responsible for. Follow Community to Community for updates.

Fourth Hunger Strike of 2017 Happening Now!

August 9th, 2017: 20 people inside the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) started another hunger strike, the fourth this year alone, demanding to be released from segregation and for all people detained be released to their families and communities starting with people that are not deportable, those that should be covered under the Convention Against Torture, and those that have waiting for a response on their case for more than 1 year. Read the press release here and follow updates on our Facebook!

Cynthia Vanessa Iraheta Lopez is a mother of 2 children, a 3-year old and a 9-year old, ICE wants to separate them by deporting Cynthia! Originally from Honduras, she’s lived in the U.S. for years. She’s a part of the Seattle area community. Unfortunately, to the racist, xenophobic Trump administration and the U.S. government, she’s “illegal” and must be deported.

For years Cynthia has reported to DHS/ICE as instructed including on May 11, 2017, where she was told to report to BI Incorporated, a private contractor for DHS, for possible removal to Honduras. Due to community support and pressure, her removal was delayed while ICE reviewed the stay of deportation presented by her lawyer.

Unfortunately, in an act reminiscent of a police state, she has been forced to wear an ankle bracelet so the government can monitor her whereabouts at all times. For this next check-in ICE has threaten Cynthia with being the last one, they want to separate her from her children!

We call on the community to stand against family separation because it is cruel and unusual punishment. She has called on the community to support her on the date she’s to report to the Department of Homeland Security and possibly be deported from the U.S.

What can you do when you know your rights, but the US government doesn’t respect them? Join the Northwest Detention Center Resistance for a short documentary screening and discussion of the 2014 and 2017 hunger strikes to protest human rights abuses at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington.

Support the Hunger Strikers! June 20 Call To Action!

Join Us at the Encampment

We will be camping in front of the Northwest Detention Center (1623 E J Street, Tacoma, WA 98421) 24 hours a day through the end of the week. Bring yourself and whatever you need to be comfortable – chairs, food, water, music – and join us in calling attention to the immigration system we all share responsibility for.

Call on Tacoma City to Shut Down the Detention Center

The Northwest Detention Center is terrorizing immigrant communities and communities of color – not just in Tacoma, but also in Seattle, Bellingham and even Boise. The City of Tacoma can and should shut down this center. There are many legal avenues: revoke the business license due to GEO’s failure to comply with health standards; conduct unannounced inspections inspect the facility’s kitchen and laundry facilities (rather than notify GEO in advance); and/or revise the municipal code to make all detention facilities meet residential zoning standards. GEO would have to comply or shut down the facility.

If you’re not local but you want to support us, you can fast for one day, or even just one meal. Please write a note, draw a picture, or take a selfie and tag #NWDCResistance on Facebook – tell folks on the inside why you stand with them!

Maru Joins the Tacoma 12 & Adelanto 9 in Calling for an End to Human Rights Abuses in Immigrant Detention

On Monday June 19, Maru Mora Villalpando, member of NWDCR, started a hunger strike to call attention to the plight of up to 1,600 immigrants held in detention suffering human rights abuses at the Northwest Detention Center. On June 15th 2017 at least a dozen detainees went on hunger strike to call attention to inhumane detention conditions, refusing to eat for multiple days. By June 18th, NWDCR organizers received reports that more than 25 hunger strikers are calling on GEO Group to provide edible, nutritious food, on ICE to provide fair and timely hearings, and on civil society to step up and take action for the injustices in our communities. In response, Maru Mora Villalpando is going on hunger strike, and is joined by other members of the civil society who are stepping up their solidarity.

April 2017 Hunger Strike Call to Action!

We need your support!! Take Action Now in Two Steps

1. Call the City of Tacoma’s Finance Department and urge them to revoke GEO Group’s Business License.

In a March 2017 letter to GEO, Mayor Strickland noted that the City of Tacoma can revoke GEO’s business license if it is a “danger to the public health, safety and welfare of the individuals [detained] as well as the community as a whole.” - Finance Department, Andrew Cherullo, Finance Director, 253.591.5800

2. Call ICE and demand that they meet the Hunger Strikers’ Demands (see below) and that GEO Group not retaliate against hunger strikers. We have reports that strikers have been threatened with transfer to facilities away from their loved ones as punishment.

Download the Hunger Strikers Handbook Now!

The Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, WA is one of the largest immigration prisons in the country, with the capacity to hold up to 1,575 people. On Friday, March 7, 2014, over one thousand people held in the NWDC fought back against an unjust system by putting their bodies on the line: a hunger strike. The strike continued for 56 days and spread to other detention centers across the USA. This year, on the third anniversary of their action, we reflect on their achievements and make an abolitionist call to stop locking people up and end all deportations. Learn more and download the Hunger Strikers Handbook.

Feb 26, 2017 Second People’s Tribunal against the Immigration System and the Northwest Detention Center

On February 26th, 2017 we gathered outside the Northwest Detention Center to hold a hearing pertaining to the detention and deportation process, conditions of the detention center, and treatment of detainees. Download the hearing findings here.

Time to Rise

Darker times are coming. As undocumented immigrants and co-conspirers we are committed to continue fighting for justice and ending detentions and deportations. And we will continue to offer our hands to all other communities that will be targeted.

This election was won by first attacking immigrants of color and giving permission to all the bigots to use us as a punching bag for their frustrations against the establishment. Then other communities were lined up for the punching.
But all those punches and promises from the now-winner of the presidential election have already been happening to most of us. The difference is that now it will happen to the rest of the country. This moment calls for a ramping up in organizing towards an end to all deportations and detention, and collective liberation for all of us. This moment, we must unite forces and work together.

We are the experts alongside many other communities of color in surviving. We are the experts in protecting each other. We are the experts and have organized for a long time. We are willing to share our knowledge of wining and resisting. We need each other. We need to fight together.

Will you join us?
Will you protect us as we will protect you?
Will you be there for us when they come to get us and try to deport us?
Will you organize with us?
Will you?

Support this work and pledge to fight alongside us and other folks targeted. Making a donation today. Become a sustaining supporter and donate $5-20 a month for the next four years.
Stay connected via Facebook.

See you in the streets.

Join Us Oct 29th: Dia de los Muertos @ NWDC

Dia de los muertos is a cultural and spiritual celebration that brings together souls of our departure ones and the importance of having a quality of life for those celebrating this important Mexican festivity.

NWDC Resistance and partners invite you to celebrate with us and to call for an end to detentions and deportations, without forgetting the thousands of people still detained and separated from their loved one in detention centers throughout the nation.

At NWDC Tacoma, we call for this place to shut down and be replaced with a community space that commemorates life not incarceration.

As DHS, under outside pressures, holds a small group of people to write a “review” of the private detention centers they use to incarcerate people awaiting for a result on their deportation process, we ask you to join us and listen to the voices of those detained, the voices that DHS refuses to listen to while making any decisions about their lives.
Join us for a weekend of learning, sharing and working towards liberation of our communities of color.
There will be different events and activities happening with the help of members of the Tacoma community and beyond.
We remind our allies that this event will create a space of respect and intentantionally stopping any cultural appropriation from happening.
We also ask that everyone that attends participate fully and engage with us respectfully.
People in detention are waiting for us to take action, not only to observe without taking their call seriously.

Solidarity with Standing Rock #NoDAPL

Read our solidarity statement with the people of Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and others who oppose the Dakota Access Pipeline and work for the future of our land and people. Our liberation are connected.

ICE-Free Zone Flyers

Happy #MamasDay from the NWDC Resistance

As we celebrate Mother’s Day, we reflect on the US immigration policy that separates mothers from their families.We want to see an end to deportations and an end to detention. We want to see our families together and thriving. So NWDC Resistance teamed up with CultureStrike, Presente.org, Forward Together,and Strong Families to deliver Mamas Day Cards to Mamas inside the Northwest Detention Center.

The Mamas Day Project started in 2011 to create cards that reflect the various ways our mamas and families look, including a spectrum of gender, race, income, sexual orientation, immigration status, and more. This year NWDCR teamed up with the Mamas Day Project and took those cards in to the Northwest Detention Center and delivered to Mamas inside.

DUMP TRUMP, Lynden Washington Style.

On Saturday May 7th, 2016 we participated in a blockade on a hot road in Lynden, Washington that lead to a Donald Trump rally. Over a dozen Latinx, Native American, and white Washington residents risked arrest blocking traffic to two main roads in Lynden, Washington during a Donald Trump Rally with “Make Lynden Coast Salish Again” banners.

“As someone who has grown up in Washington, today I am putting my body on the line to stop fascism from taking over our country. Today I am fighting for my mom, for my Native American neighbors and friends, and anyone who has been the target of hatred whether it comes from Trump or the local police. The residents of Lynden today have a chance to stand with us and reject hate,” said Josefina Mora, 18, one of the participant’s of today’s action..”

Angel Padilla is being detained at the NWDC without access to the healthcare his life depends on. Desperately in need of a major surgery for a cancerous tumor in his left kidney, Padilla waits in an immigration detention center that does not and will not provide adequate health care. Take action now and demand that Angel Padilla is released immediately, that he be given full access to medical files, and that his deportation be stopped altogether.

Padilla is one of 1,500+ detainees in the Northwest Detention Center exposed to human rights violations on a daily basis. Many who are detained not only have health care needs that are not met, but are often put in solitary confinement instead of being provided with adequate health care. This needs to stop!

Suggested script: “Hello, I’m calling about the detention of Mr. Padilla (A 092 721 003), a 39-year-old man currently detained at the Northwest Detention Center. In December 2015, a CAT scan detected a cancerous tumor in his left kidney. Mr. Padilla’s health is deteriorating in detention and on February 19 he was rushed to the hospital after collapsing in his cell. I’m aware Mr. Padilla has a conviction from 1996, but I also know he has taken the steps to atone for his actions. I urge you to use prosecutorial discretion and release Mr. Padilla from immigration detention, so he can receive the medical attention he needs to survive.”

2) Sign the petition and demand: Justice for Angel! Click here to sign the petition and join NWDC Resistance and the #Not1More Campaign in sending a message to ICE officials.

Diverse coalition of activists risk arrest to stop immigrant deportations, call for immediate end to detentions.Community members lock down for what has become a global human rights issue

September 21, 2015, at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, more than 20 community members locked down to prevent the morning’s deportation buses from leaving the privately run facilities.

The goal was not only to prevent the day’s immigrant deportations, but also to protest the criminalization and scapegoating of immigrants, highlight the moral injustice of privately-run for-profit detention centers and their collaboration with the local police departments creating a road to detention, and call for an end to all immigrant deportations and detentions.

Banners spread next to protesters read “Climate Justice means Ending Deportations” “Queers Demand and End to Detention” and “Not1More”, speaking to how immigration is an environmental issue and issue of gender justice.

“Climate change is resulting in worsening drought and super-storm conditions which displace millions across the globe. These climate refugees will number 200 million by 2050. World leaders and communities across the U.S. need to end these unjust deportations and commit to policies that stop climate change.” said Jill Mangaliman, one of the protesters locked down today and executive director of Got Green.

Members of TWAC (Trans and/or Women Action Camp) carried signs protesting ICE’s controversial practice of placing transgender detainees in solitary confinement. While transgender women only make up 1 out of 500 detained immigrants in this country, they make up an alarming 1 out of every 5 confirmed sexual assaults in immigration detention.

Participants of the day’s blockade, which included Rising Tide Seattle, the Raging Grannies, and other groups fighting for climate justice, economic justice, reproductive justice, worker rights, and more, vow to keep returning to the detention center for future actions as long as unjust detentions and deportations continue.

Meet Some of the Folks Who Locked Down & Why

“I’m here to end deportations because I want a world where families can stay together and people be treated humanely . I have family and friends impacted by this unhealthy, violent system of detaining and disposing of communities in the name of profits. Then from super typhoon Haiyan to Hurricane Katrina, to the wildfires and drought here and around the world, people of color are bearing the brunt of environmental racism and displacement from their homes. I want to see justice for all the migrants who have been forced to migrate because of the damage to their homelands caused by this destructive economy. Privatization, market-based solutions are false solutions! Climate justice means ending deportations and detentions.” – Jill Mangaliman

“As a queer Xicano of Mexican diaspora and a child of an immigrant, I feel personally connected to the importance of stopping and ending detentions. Stopping detentions is queer and gender justice because there are so many trans and queer people who are detained who experience transphobic and homophobic targeting within the system and who aren’t getting proper/gender affirming care. No one should be detained and no one is illegal.” – Yecelica Valdiva

“I’m participating in this action for my mom who is undocumented, and for all the children of undocumented parents that are separated from their families because of this unjust system. “ -Josefina Mora

“I decided to do another direct action to stop detentions and deportation with the possibility of risking arrest and deportation because I believe the federal and local authorities continue cooperating to criminalize our communities of color.While we are here outside organizing to bring light to this violation of human rights, this private prison is at capacity, thousands of people are there waiting to be deported, separated from their loved ones, living infra-humane conditions just so Geo corporation can make more profits and ICE meets their daily quota.We have to end this corruption and it has to end now!” – Maru Mora Vilalpando

“I am participating in this action because I want to support the movement to end deportations. We don’t need borders or prisons. Our action is one small part of a dynamic, growing movement to stop the violence of immigration enforcement.” – Dean Spade

“I am doing this work because we need to understand why people migrate in the first place. Everything is connected. Everything. Environmental justice is connected to food justice is connected to reproductive justice, racial justice, gender justice is connected to immigrant rights. ” – Elizabeth Ortega

“I am risking arrest as a Jew, whose family has survived the horrors of being targets of the state. I am alive today because of immigration, and therefore I cannot in good conscious be idle while this country, and corporations like Geo Group, profit from the targeting, detention, and deportation of people in our community.” – Ross Kirshenbaum

“I’m participating in the Deportation Resistance because my identity grants me the privilege to avoid being targeted for an ignorant kind of xenophobia that is maintained by hatred.” – Emanuel da Silva

“I am very concerned with how we are treating immigrants in this country and am here to bring attention to the plight of those who are being separated from their families. My grandparents came to this country from Eastern Europe without documents and were treated well. I am ashamed that this is happening in my country.” – Cynthia Linet

“We are engaging in a powerful action against a violent system – it is the same government that is responsible for displacing communities around the world (via economic and military policy) and then criminalizing them when entering U.S. borders. And as a white citizen committed to racial justice, I’m hopeful my participation in this action will inspire more white people to join the multiracial, undocumented-led movement for migrant justice.” – Sean O’Neill

“I am participating in this demonstration and risking arrest to demand an end to immigrant detention and deportations. No one is illegal and no one should be criminalized for migrating. I’m showing up to call for justice and to honor the dignity of everyone impacted by our cruel immigration system.” – Jenny McIntosh

“I’m here in solidarity with the Northwest Detention Center because deportation is part of a larger system of oppression built to remove valuable lives of color from the community. Deportation is racist. Drop the borders.” – Max Black

“I am taking part in this work to support all the organizing being down, tirelessly and passionately, by migrants and their supporters across the land. Migrant justice now! Let’s end the cruel fiction of borders, let’s end incarceration and deportation, let’s make a more just and open world!” – Joe Hiller

“I am participating in this action to remind the detainees that they are not alone. That they have strangers and friends on the outside that still care about their lives and their families, and are outraged by the injustices that they face.” – Hollis Proffitt